Can Dutch and Afrikaans speakers understand each other?

Answer 1

A lot of words are similar / shared. However, there are enough differences to create confusion. Add to that a different pronunciation of some words and the language barrier is complete. I personally can't understand much Afrikaans at all.

Answer 2

That depends, in some ways, we can understand one another. In other things, you'd really have to think about it when speaking it as a conversation.